Sure Looks Strange to Me
by ivylecat
Summary: A one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater is on the loose, and seven-year-old Sam is excited to help out on the hunt.
1. Seven Year Olds Are Full of Crap

**Sure Looks Strange to Me**

The rumor swept across southern Colorado like wildfire, hopped the state line into New Mexico and kept moving south. In less than a week every 1st grader at Grafton Elementary School had heard the news: a one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater was on the loose.

"Its supposed to be eight feet tall and all over purple," says Sam. "And fuzzy like a Muppet!"

Across the tiny kitchen table, Dean looks up from his math homework. "Are we talking like Grover fuzzy or Snuffleupagus fuzzy?" he asks.

"Really fuzzy!" says Sam, pleased to have finally gotten Dean's attention. He digs a purple crayon out of the box and adds squiggly lines to his monster picture. "Trent said it ate his cousin's neighbors' parents!"

"Trent is seven. Seven year olds are full of crap."

"I'm seven."

"Exactly."

Sam scowls. "But shouldn't we do something?"

"Like what?"

"Like hunt it."

"You want to bug Dad about this?"

Sam nods solemnly.

"You really want to bug Dad about a purple people eater?" Dean shakes his head and looks back down at his homework. "Tell him when I'm out of the room. I don't wannna hear him yelling at you about wasting his time."

---------

Dad's reclining in his secondhand easy chair, with his feet up and a beer in hand, watching a football game on the black and white TV Dean found in the apartment complex dumpster. He's still wearing his oil-stained work clothes from his part-time job at Rick's Auto, and he looks pretty tired. Sam chews his bottom lip and gathers courage. He's never proposed a hunt before.

Sam looks over at Dean, who's paging through a comic book on the couch, then takes a deep breath and walks up to his father.

"Dad?" Sam asks.

"Hmm?" Dad doesn't look away from the game.

"Um." Sam doesn't quite know where to start. "You know Colorado?"

Dad turns from the TV and gives Sam a bemused look. "The state?"

Sam nods.

"Yep, I know of it."

"Well, I guess some people have died there."

"Uh-huh." Dad raises an eyebrow.

"And it was like they were eaten."

"Uh-huh."

"Like by a monster."

"A monster," Dad repeats, half-smiling now.

"And I think we should check it out."

"You do?"

"Yep."

"And where did you hear about this?"

"School."

From the couch, Dean suppress a laugh behind his comic book.

"Sam," Dad starts, in the voice he uses to tell Sam "no". Sam feels disappointment flooding through him. He wilts.

"Kids make up stories all the time. And they exaggerate."

"But Trent_ said _it was a monster."

"Did Trent see it?"

Sam looks down at his shoes. "No," he admits.

"Kids make up stories," Dad says again, and he turns back to the TV.

Sam isn't ready to give up. "But maybe it is real, and if it is we have to stop it, right? Can't we at least check, Dad?"

Dad sighs wearily and ponders his beer can, then looks back at Sam. "Okay," he says finally. "I'll look into it."

"Really?" Sam blooms.

"Yeah, really. Now don't you have homework or something?"

Sam's been done with his homework for hours, but he can take a hint. He bolts out of the room, grinning from ear to ear. On his way out he notices that from behind the comic book, Dean is grinning too.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading the 1st chapter! So, I know Sam was older than 7 when he found out about the family business, but waaaaay back when I started writing this story we viewers didn't know that yet. Then I just decided to ignore the truth. I hope the AUness doesn't bug anyone too much.

Please let me know what you think!


	2. They Always Blame the Mountain Lions

**I guess I should mention that the monster's description is "borrowed" from the Sheb Wooley classic "The Purple People Eater." And since I'm admitting to borrowing other people awesome ideas, I'll confess that Winchesters are being borrowed as well. But only I have combined the two! Enjoy chapter 2. **

* * *

Even though he promised Sam he would find out about the monster, Dad doesn't say a thing about it for three whole days. Then he leaves, and is gone two nights hunting some ghosts in Nevada. Dean gets all bossy, like he always does when Dad's gone**. **Sam tries to be patient but he really wants to know about the monster.

"What if it's eating more people?" Sam asks his older brother that night.

Dean frowns. "What are you worried about it for anyway?" He keeps cutting up hotdogs to add to the Macaroni and Cheese he's making for dinner.

"We have to help people."

Dean rolls his eyes. "Dad has to help people. You have to shut up and get out the plates."

Sam scowls at his brother, but he gets out the plates out anyway.

----------

Dad finally comes home late that night. Lying in bed, Sam can hear Dad's low voice through the thin walls of the apartment, probably telling Dean about the hunt. Sam's supposed to be asleep, but he carefully climbs out of bed and presses an ear to the bedroom door to listen.

"All right Dean, you said hello, you go to bed," Dad is saying.

"Yes sir," Dean says. But then, "Hey, did you hear anything about Sam's monster?"

Sam holds his breath.

"I did, actually," Dad says. "Seems like he may be right."

"Wait, seriously?" Dean sounds surprised.

Dad laughs. "Yeah. A string of animal attacks in central New Mexico, nasty maulings. One kid witnessed his parent's death, told a funny story about a purple monster. But they're blaming it on a mountain lion that somehow managed to get inside the house."

"They always blame the poor mountain lions," says Dean. "It could be a werewolf, Wendigo, Jersey Devil, anything."

"Yeah." Dad pauses, like he's thinking something over. "We can go check it out this weekend, if you boys are up for it."

"Sam'll be psyched." Dean says.

"All right already, get to bed, it's eleven thirty and you have school tomorrow."

"Yes sir."

Sam hears Dean's footsteps heading down the short hall and he scrambles back into his bed before Dean opens the door. He lies there pretending to sleep as Dean settles into his own bed in the dark.

"I know you're awake Sammy, you snoop."

Sam abandons pretense and sits up in bed, hugging his knees to his chest. "D'ya think we'll catch it?" he asks his brother.

"Sure, why not."

Sam rests his chin on his knees, imagining the hunt. He can picture the monster, taller than Dad, with a sharp unicorn-horn , one big eye that looks yellow like a cat's and wings like a hawk, or maybe like a bat. And covered in long purple fur, of course. "It's not a werewolf," he tells Dean. "It's a purple people eater."

"Yeah sure Sammy, whatever you say," Dean mumbles through a yawn.

* * *

**Well I saw the thing comin' out of the sky  
It had the one long horn, one big eye  
I commenced to shakin' and I said oo-wee  
It looks like a purple people eater to me  
**

**Thanks for reading! I'd love to know what you think about the story so far.  
**


	3. Big Fuzzy Purple Monster Ate His Folks

---------------------

On Saturday morning Sam is dressed and ready to go before dawn, with the silver-plated pocketknife he got a month ago for his seventh birthday tucked safely in his jeans pocket. He knows better than to wake the still-sleeping Dean, so he just stands over him, watching and waiting. But after a minute he gets bored.

"Dean," he whispers. "Deeeeean. Dean! Wake up!"

Dean groans and pulls the covers over his head.

"Dean, c'mon!"

"Sam, I swear to god if you don't leave me alone I will kill you before you get the chance to hunt your stupid purple monster."

Sam decides to watch cartoons until Dad and Dean are ready.

-----------------

It seems to Sam that he's spent most of his life in the back seat of the Impala, bored and waiting. He stares out the window toward Dover General Hospital and watches another ambulance pull up to the ER.

Finally, Dad and Dean come back out the sliding hospital door. They're dressed nice, like how Dad makes them all dress when they go to Pastor Jim's church. They look almost like strangers to Sam as they cross the parking lot.

"Did they believe you? Did they let you talk to the kid?" Sam demands eagerly the second they get to the car.

"Of course," Dean scoffs. He pulls the clip-on tie from his collar and throws it at Sam, who ducks to avoid it. "I'm Sean's best friend since Kindergarten. They had to let me see him."

"What did he say?

Dad tosses his coat into the backseat next to Sam, then unbuttons his shirt cuffs and loosens his collar. "Big fuzzy purple monster ate his folks," he says.

"Yes! I knew it!"

"You're such a freak," Dean teases.

But Sam doesn't care what Dean thinks. He is so excited that he can't be still. He feels like he can't wait another minute to get started.

----------------------

They drive to the neighborhood of the attacks and pull into a nearly empty McDonald's parking lot. Dad stops the car and turns to Dean in the passenger seat.

"Find me the private detective I.D."

Sam watches impatiently as Dean opens the glove box and digs through Dad's large collection of I.D.s until he finds the right one.

"What's the plan?" Dean asks as he hands the badge to Dad.

"I'm going to walk around, talk to some people, listen to their stories." Dad pockets the badge, then pulls a handgun out and checks that it is loaded.

Dean eyes the gun and makes a face. "Do you think _that_ will kill a monster?"

Dad smirks and shakes his head. "Piss it off, maybe. Anything that'll really kill it is too obvious for the daytime. Today is just reconnaissance. We'll come back tonight with the big guns."

Dean grins his approval. Dad puts the gun into a holster strapped across his chest before retrieving his coat from the backseat. With the coat on, it is nearly impossible to see he is carrying a weapon.

In the backseat, Sam is fidgety and impatient. "What do you want us to do, Dad?" he asks eagerly.

Dad looks out the window toward the McDonald's. "You boys can stay here and have some lunch."

Sam groans. "But Dad..."

Dad glances up into the rear view mirror and shoots Sam a stern look. "This thing could be dangerous. It put that boy in the hospital, killed his parent and six other adults."

Sam slides down in his seat until he can no longer see his dad's eyes in the rear view mirror. He glares at the back of Dad's headrest.

Dad turns to Dean. "You watch Sam and if you see something, you stay far away and wait for me."

"Yes sir," Dean says.

"Sam, you mind your brother."

In the backseat, Sam grunts angrily in response. But Dad's already climbing out of the car. He doesn't even notice Sam.

**----------**

Dad gives them $10 for McDonalds. Dean, who is eleven and understands more about grownups and money, orders the food. Sam sits in a booth with his arms crossed over his chest and glares at the wall. He's getting left out _again_. And he has to be watched, like he can't keep himself out of trouble.

Dean slides into the seat across from Sam and pushes a brightly-colored box toward him. Sam continues to stare mutely at the wall. He doesn't touch his happy meal.

"C'mon Sammy, I got you the nuggets," Dean says encouragingly.

"I'm not hungry," Sam says flatly.

Dean unwraps his cheeseburger and frowns at it before taking a big bite. "You know Dad just wants to keep you safe," he points out through a mouthful.

"I should get to help," Sam replies darkly. "It was my idea."

"Yeah, well, you're too little, Sam. I don't get to help either."

"Because you have to babysit me."

Dean shakes his head. "Well at least I'm not moping, I'm enjoying my cheeseburger."

As if to prove his point, Dean finishes off his burger in another bite, then crumples up the wrapper.

"If you're not going to eat, you want to go on the play zone or something?" He grins wickedly. "We could have a ball pit fight til they kick us out."

"Play zones are for little kids."

Dean sighs. "Well, there's extra change. You want a quarter for a video game, or are you too old for that too?"

Sam scowls at his brother and doesn't answer.

"Fine, be like that Sam." Dean gathers his trash and steals some of Sam's french-fries as he leaves the table. "I'm going to play PacMan. You just sit here and be mad."

* * *

**Yay, part three! Thanks for reading. Here is a teaser for part 4: Sam does not just sit there and feel mad! Will there be a purple monster in Sam's future? Stay tuned to find out!  
**


	4. Bad Things Hide in Basements

**Previously: A fuzzy purple monster is killing people. Sam wanted to help Dad hunt it, but got stuck getting babysat by Dean at McDonald's.**

--------------------------

Sam stomps his feet as he walks along the sidewalk, past a strip mall, and into the neighborhood of houses where the monster attacks all happened. He stomps his feet so hard that it hurts. It makes him feel better to stomp them so loudly.

He hadn't meant to sneak away from McDonald's, not really. But Dean and Dad act like they're so smart and Sam is a dumb little kid who can't be any help at all. Even through _he's_ the one who found out about the monster.

Well, Sam doesn't need Dean to protect him like a baby and he isn't afraid of some dumb purple monster. He'll find it by himself. Then they'll see.

His anger lasts about half a block. Then he thinks about how Dean will freak out when he realizes Sam's gone. And how mad Dad will be at both of them for not following orders.

Sam sits down on the curb and stares at his scuffed sneakers. Inside, he feels all tangled up, like he wants everything and nothing all at once. Wet, frustrated tears gather in the corners of his eyes, and he squeezes them shut. He doesn't want to cry, but he feels so knotted up inside that he can't help it.

After a minute a shadow passes over Sam and he looks up. A girl around his age, maybe a grade older, is looking down at him from the sidewalk. She's tanned and barefoot, wearing jean shorts and a faded t-shirt, and she smiles at him when he looks up.

"Hello."

"Hi," he responds reluctantly. He sniffles and wipes at his nose with the back of his hand.

"Are you lost or something?" She pushes her stringy blond hair back behind her ear and studies his face until he feels embarrassed that he has been crying.

"No," he says quickly. He looks back down at the street and wishes she would leave, but her shadow stays put and he can feel her eyes on him.

"Then why are you crying?" He hears doubt in her voice.

"I'm not," Sam says, and he wipes fiercely at his eyes with his sleeve.

"Okay, okay." He wants her to go away, but she sits down right next to him so that their shoulders touch. She hugs her knees and looks at him again.

"I'm Emily," she says.

"I'm Sam," he mumbles back.

She sits there quietly for a moment, watching him with clear blue eyes. "I can make them stop," she says softly.

Sam looks over at her, confused. He sniffs a little. "What?"

"If someone's hurting you, I can make them stop."

He must have given her a strange look then, because she acts annoyed and explains, "So _they_ won't hurt you anymore."

Sam gets a funny feeling in his stomach. Something is weird about this girl.

"How do you make them stop?" he asks cautiously.

But she doesn't really answer him. Instead she frowns deeply, like she is thinking about something serious. "Grown-ups shouldn't treat kids like that," she says. "They should keep us safe, and be nice all the time, not hurt us."

She looks at Sam closely again. "Are your parents nice? If they're mean, I can make them stop."

Sam doesn't say anything, but his mind is spinning. A girl like this couldn't stop a grown-up by herself. But _something_ killed that kid Sean's parents. And something killed Trent's cousin's neighbors' parents too. He has to find out if she had anything to do with the monster.

Sam thinks of how Dad sometimes lies to people so they tell him things. Like how right now Dad is pretending to be a private investigator so people will talk to him. It's not really bad or wrong if it ends up helping people.

Sam decides to lie. He says, "Sometimes my Dad is kind of mean to me." He feels bad as soon as he's said it.

She blinks at him and her frown softens a little. "Did he do something to make you cry?" she asks quietly.

Sam feels annoyed. "I wasn't crying."

"Okay, sorry. But, he makes you feel bad? He hurts you?"

"Sometimes."

She smiles at him then, her eyes dancing. "I can help you," she announces cheerfully.

She stands up and wipes her palms on her scruffy jeans. "My house is right here." She points to the large home on the lot behind them. "Just come inside for a minute, OK? I want to show you something cool."

----------

Emily lives in an old farmhouse on a large lot. The house is big but run-down, the once white paint faded to a dingy, peeling yellow. The front grass is long and gone to seed, dotted with bright yellow dandelions, and strewn with broken toys. Sam trails after Emily up the cracked cement walkway and pauses at the porch steps when she shoves open the ratty screen door.

"Well c'mon in," she says impatiently.

It always feels strange to him to be in other people's homes. This house smells faintly of cigarettes and some kind of sweet flower. Sam notices faded brown carpeting and cream-colored walls, and he can hear the sounds of a TV commercial playing in another room. The girl leads him along a dim, narrow hallway, past a fancy living room and dining room, and into a small kitchen. In the kitchen there is a tower of dirty dishes in the sink, spilling over onto the counters. All of the cabinets are ajar and half-full. Sam wonders if Emily has a mom.

Emily heads past the kitchen table to a door next to the pantry. She unlatches a small bolt and pulls the door open. Narrow wooden stairs disappear into darkness. "It's down here," she says helpfully.

Sam has been in enough basements to know that bad thing hide there. Suddenly, he doesn't know if this is a place he wants to go by himself. "Wait," he says. She turns back to look at him, frowning again.

He scrambled for a reason to stay upstairs. "Um, shouldn't we tell your parents…"

She grins at him crookedly in a way that makes his stomach twist again. "They won't mind you're here," she says casually.

"But my dad's gonna wonder where I am."

Her grin spreads. "He won't mind either, pretty soon. It'll only take a minute, Sam."

"What's down there, exactly?"

"You have to just see. It will help you Sam, I promise."

Of course she wouldn't _tell_ him there's a one-eyed, one-horned purple monster down there. He's going to have to see for himself.

Sam looks down the dark stairway again, and feels torn between fear and duty. He touches the small knife in his pocket, the one Dad gave him on his seventh birthday. It makes him feel braver. He thinks about Dad and Dean, how they aren't afraid of anything. He is a hunter too. He can do this.

Emily is starting to get impatient. "Don't you want to see? I know you'll like it, Sam," she says.

Sam takes a deep breath. "Ok," he says. "I'm ready."

She smiles, then turns and descends into the darkness, and Sam follows her down.

* * *

**A/N: I wonder what Emily is keeping in her basement. Maybe it will be a litter of adorable newborn kittens. Thanks for reading part 4! Please let me know what you think.**


	5. Sam's Seen Much, Much Worse

**Previously: After sneaking away from Dad and Dean, Sam meets a girl who might know something about the purple people eater. She takes him to her basement and even though Sam knows bad things hide in basements he decides to follow her down.**

----------

The basement is actually quite nice. It's carpeted and has brightly painted walls. There's a big orange and brown plaid couch in the middle of the room, facing a TV with a Nintendo and a VCR. One wall is full of shelves of books, board games and video cassettes. As far as basement go, Sam's seen much, much worse.

"Fuzzy!" Emily calls in a high voice when she reached the bottom of the stairs, like she is calling to a pet cat.

Sam looks around the room anxiously, his right hand clutching the knife in his pocket, but nothing happens.

"Fuzzy, come out," she calls again. She walks to the overstuffed orange and brown couch and squats down to look underneath it.

"Here he is!" she says happily.

A small, bright purple ball rolls out from under the couch, then stands on two scrawny stick-legs and gives itself a little shake. It's about the size of a golf ball and looks soft to the touch. Sam thinks it might be a baby chick, except it has no beak or wings, only one beady black eye in the center of the purple ball. The girl scoops it up and cuddles it to her cheek.

"Isn't he cute?" Emily asks.

Sam eyes the purple creature skeptically. "I guess. What is it?"

"I dunno. I found him." She scratches it with her fingertips and it makes a purring sound and rises into the scratch. "He helps me."

Sam frowns, trying to figure this out. It _is_ purple and it does have one eye. But if it is the purple people eater it is _way_ smaller then he thought it would be. How could a little furry ball help Emily? And how could it hurt grown-ups like Sean's parents? Plus, it doesn't have a horn and it doesn't look like it can fly.

"Fuzzy, will you help Sam too?" Emily asks the little fluffy ball. It does another little shake, like it is answering her, and she snuggles it up to her cheek again, then holds it out towards Sam. "Do you want to pet him?"

Sam wrinkles his nose and shakes his head. He does not want to pet it. "No thank you."

"Are you sure? If you pet him and tell him your problems, he makes them go away," she tells Sam.

"Like he helped your friend Sean?" Sam guesses.

"Yeah, like Sean. His Dad would hurt him but not anymore. Right Fuzzy?"

Sam's stomach does an excited flip. He _did_ find the monster, all by himself!

But the little purple fuzzball doesn't look very dangerous sitting on Emily's small palm and purring like a kitten. "How did _that _stop Sean's Dad?" Sam asks doubtfully.

Emily shrugs. "I think it's some kind of magic. Just pet him and you can see it. He'll help you."

It occurs to Sam suddenly that he has no idea what to do next. Kill it? How? He's a little afraid that touching it will make it try to kill Dad. He could probably just step on it, but he doubts Emily wouldn't let him try. Sam decides it is time to find Dad and Dean, now that he's proved that he can help too.

"I don't need help like that," Sam tells Emily. "I just need to get back to McDonald's."

"Oh." Emily's face falls.

"I really need to go," Sam says, and he takes a few steps backwards toward the basement stairs. "My brother's going to be really worried."

"Okay," she says, obviously disappointed. "You won't tell anybody about Fuzzy, right?"

"No."

Emily's blue eyes grow round and serious. "You can't tell anybody, Sam. They'll take him away."

In her hands, the little purple ball shutters, then puffs up suddenly, doubling in size like a blowfish.

Suddenly Sam wants to be gone, now. "I won't," Sam promises, still backing away.

"I need him," she says. Her voice sounds strange and desperate, and the small purple ball doubles again and again in her arms, and starts to change shape. The stick-legs lengthen and plump, and it sprouts thick purple arms and a fuzzy round head. It is too big for Emily to hold. It leaps from her arms on the floor, landing on all fours like a cat.

As he backs rapidly towards the stairs and away from the monster, it occurs to Sam that it Fuzzy is starting to look like a Muppet. A purple Grover, he thinks numbly.

"Promise me," Emily says. She looks angry now, and dangerous. Her eyes are wild.

"I promise, I swear I won't." Sam backs up the first few basement stairs quickly but awkwardly. He doesn't want to turn his back on that thing. Dad always says, don't turn your back on anything with teeth.

The monster is still growing, but also moving now, purposeful strides on fuzzy purple legs, stalking right towards Sam. Row of razor-sharp teeth burst from its mouth and Sam scrambles backwards up a few more steps, half falling.

"You're lying Sam, it knows," Emily snarls. "You can't tell. They'll take him away."

"Emily," Sam pleads. "Tell it to stop."

"I can't stop him. It's too late. You can't hurt us, Sam."

The monster is as tall as Sam now, and it's single black eye is focused on Sam's face like a laser. It crawls up the first few stairs on its stubby arms and legs, gnashing its teeth hungrily.

* * *

**Well he came down to earth and he lit in a tree  
I said Mr. Purple People Eater, don't eat me  
I heard him say in a voice so gruff  
I wouldn't eat you cuz you're so tough**

**Will Sam end up monster chow? Or is he safe because he isn't purple? I would love to hear what you think of the story so far!**


	6. Sam's Not Sticking Around

Previously: Sam is about to be purple monster chow. Run for it, Sam!

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Sam stumbles backwards up the basement stairs. The monster is halfway up and gaining. Sam's back hits the closed door and he fumbles blindly for the handle. The door finally swings open and he falls back onto the cold kitchen linoleum, then scrambles to his feet and shoves the door closed. He hears a loud thump a second later when the monster collides with the door, then a moment of silence before the door buckles and creaks in protest as the monster collides with it again.

Sam's not sticking around to see if the door will hold. He runs out of the kitchen into the adjoining living room. His heart swells with relief when he sees the house's front door through another doorway.

As he dodges a couch Sam trips on something and lands hard on his palms and knees. A splintering crash comes from the kitchen, the monster breaking its way through the basement door. Sam hurries to rise to his feet but suddenly stops short. A scream catches in his throat and his mind goes white with panic.

There's a man sprawled on the couch, his chest ripped open and caked with old blood. Sam backs quickly away and looks down at what tripped him: a woman lying face-down on the floor, surrounded by a sticky brown pool of blood. Emily's parents.

The bodies are old and reeking, and Sam covers his nose and mouth with his hands to stop himself from gagging, backing away from the carnage and toward the front door.

Then he feels a hot breath on his back. Behind him there is a low growl.

Sam spins toward the sound and his entire frame of vision is filled with coarse purple fur. A foot away from him, the monster rears up onto its hind feet like a grizzly bear. It towers above him, coal-black eye fixed on Sam's ghost-white face. It snarls, showing off an impossible amount of razor-sharp teeth.

Sam snarls back at it, pulls his knife from his pocket, and quickly flips open the silver blade. He slashes out with the knife, slicing deeply into the monster's purple belly. It recoils from the cut, sitting back on its haunches and making a surprised, wounded grunt. Its one eye rolls down to study the cut and it sniffs at the bright red blood oozing from it.

Then its eye snaps back to Sam, and it growls deep and angry. It opens its fang-filled mouth and prepares to pounce.

"Run, Sammy!"

Dean leaps onto the monster from behind, wrapping his arms around its think purple neck, choking it. Sam ducks out of the way as the monster spins and tries to bat at Dean with it's short arms. It flails around, knocking over furniture, crashing in to walls, trying anything to get Dean off its back, but Dean's not letting go.

"Get out of here Sam, go get Dad!"

"Where?" Sam shouts over the noise of the thrashing monster.

"He's lookin' for you, he's across the street."

The monster crashes backwards into another wall. "Son of a bitch!" Dean swears. "Hurry up, Sammy!"

Sam runs through the open front door and onto the porch, and sees Dad walking along the sidewalk across the street.

"Dad!" he yells.

"Sam! Where the hell…"

"The monster's in here. You gotta help Dean!"

Dad sprints across the street to the door, already pulling out the gun from under his coat before he's past the threshold.

"Let go of it, Dean!"

Dean drops to the floor and rolls away from the now-furious purple monster. It lunges for Dean but the gun cracks, once, twice, sending the monster reeling backwards over the couch and showering the room with flecks of blood and purple fur.

But the monster lands on all four legs and springs forward again like a lion, leaping effortlessly back over the couch and landing only a few feet away from Dad. Its grotesque purple face snarls and shrieks with rage and its black eye roll wildly as it stalks toward Dad.

Standing alone at the doorway, all Sam can do is watch helplessly.

* * *

**I feel like this chapter is kind of short, sorry. Action-y stuff is hard for me to write so if anything is confusing let me know and I will revise it. I also wonder if anyone can guess what will happen next. Thanks for reading!**


	7. We're Gonna Run Like Hell

Previously: Dad's trying to rescue Sam, but it turns out a small handgun can't stop an angry purple people eater.

* * *

Dad empties his revolver into the quickly approaching monster. The bullets strike the monster with a dull thud, but they don't seem to bother it anymore. It just surges forward with purposeful strides until Dad's gunshots are replaced by the click of an empty chamber.

From across the room, Sam watches Dad's face shift from determined to alarmed.

"Get ready, boys," Dad shouts. "I'm gonna distract it and then we're gonna run like hell." He reaches to his side, grabs a lamp from an end table and hurls it at the monster.

The lamp flies through the air, power cord trailing behind it, and smacks the monster in the eye with a satisfying crash before falling into shards on the floor.

The monster reels backwards, wincing and blinking as it swipes awkwardly at its eye with fuzzy purple paws.

The three Winchesters realize the monster's weakness at the same time.

"Grab whatever you can," Dad shouts at Dean. "Aim for the eye."

Dean leaps to action, yanking a framed family portrait from the wall and flinging it like a Frisbee at the monster's one rolling eye, and following that with a barrage of VHS cassettes from the rack next to the TV.

"C'mon Sam! Blind it," Dean shouts, before grabbing another cassette.

From where he's standing in the doorway, Sam scans the room for something to throw, then looks down at his right hand, sticky with blood and purple fur. He is still grasping the knife he used to slash at the monster when it had him cornered.

Sam looks back up at the monster again. It has started a cowering and scrambling retreat from the barrage of lamps, decorative plates, and television controllers Dad and Dean have aimed at its one eye.

Sam knows what he has to do. He hears Dean shouting at him to stop, but he barrels toward the monster, the knife griped tightly in his right hand. When he reaches the monster he raises the knife above his head and slams it forward, driving the blade into the monster's eyeball with both hands.

The eye bursts like a water balloon and the monster flings Sam backwards, throwing him forcefully to the ground. It stumbles away, pawing at the knife still stuck in its head.

Sam's world is spinning. He watches the monster retreat to the kitchen, Dad follows after it a moment later, and then Dean is standing above him, wide-eyed and panting.

"You okay Sammy?" Dean kneels next to Sam, helps him sit up, then looks him over closely, like he's checking for broken bones.

"I'm okay," Sam shrugs his brother off.

Dad come back from the kitchen, his face white and grim. "It's dead," he says. He doesn't even look at Sam.

"Dad, I …" Sam starts.

"We will talk about it when this thing is burned," Dad says quietly.

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They salt and burn the monster in an old fire pit in the home's large backyard. The fur seems artificial but the rest of it is real enough, flesh and bone making the job unpleasant.

"What was it?" Dean asks as they watch the crackling and spitting fire with its thick plumes of black smoke.

Dad shrugs. "Probably some sort of shapeshifter or golem. I'll ask around." He looks over at Sam. "You think the girl was controlling it?"

Sam thinks about what Emily told him in the basement. "Kind of. She said it protected her."

"Yeah, I bet it did," says Dean.

Sam thinks for a moment. "She wanted me to touch it. She said if I touched it, it would make bad things go away."

"Bad things like her parents," Dad says. "And Sean Collins' parents, too."

"I wouldn't touch it," Sam says quickly.

Dad smiles tightly at Sam and ruffles his hair. "Good boy."

* * *

**Let's all pretend that it hasn't been like eight months since I updated this story. The last chapter should be up tomorrow. Thanks for reading!**


	8. That Was Freaking Awesome

Previously: Just when it looked like they might be monster chow, Sammy saved the day and killed the Purple People Eater. But now he has to face something every scarier: an angry Dad.

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They call the cops once the corpse is reduced to ashes.

"She was just playing with my boy," Dad tells the detective when he questions them in front of Emily's house. "Invited him inside. He found the parents dead like that, came and told me straight away. She must have been so traumatized by it she didn't tell anybody, poor little girl."

The detective makes a note of this. "We'll need to talk with your son," he tells Dad.

Dad frowns and places a hand on Sam's shoulder. "Of course, but do you need to do that now? It's late and he's pretty upset."

The officer looks down at Sam, who doesn't have to try very hard to act upset, and nods sympathetically. "We can do it tomorrow."

Sam listens numbly as Dad gives the detective a fake phone number and address to go along with his fake name. From where they are standing on the driveway he can see Emily sobbing in the back of a police cruiser at the curb, waiting for social services. It's the really messy kind of crying.

Dean looks at Emily too, then twirls a finger around his ear. "She's a nut job," he tells Sam. "Keeping the monster that ate her parents for a pet."

"I don't think her parents were very nice to her," Sam says.

Dean scoffs. "She's still crazy. That was freaking awesome, when you stabbed that thing in the eye."

Sam smiles a little. "Yeah." Then his smile fades. "Sorry I left you at McDonald's," he tells Dean softly.

Dean shrugs and looks away. "Yeah, well, you learned not to do it again, right?"

"Yeah," Sam agrees.

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When the detective finally lets them go and they climb into Dad's car, Sam knows he's in for it.

Dad grips the steering wheel for a minute, just staring out the windshield at the flashing lights of the cruisers parked in front of the girl's house.

"Dad?" Dean asks from the passenger seat.

"Not now, Dean," Dad growls. He takes a deep breath and turns to face Sam in the back seat.

"You have anything you wanna say to me, Sam?"

Sam stares mutely down at his hands.

Dad's simmering anger finally boils over. "Damn it, Sam, what did I say? When I'm gone, you stay with your brother."

Sam cringes away from Dad's anger. "Yes, sir," he mumbles.

"You could have been killed by that shifter. You can't just go after these things by yourself. You're only seven years old, Sam. "

Sam balls his hands into fists and glares up at Dad. "I'm not a baby anymore," he shouts back at Dad. "I can help!"

Dad looks up at the ceiling in frustration, then back at Sam. "Nobody's calling you a baby, Sam. Just…leave the monster hunting to the adults, okay? You'll be grown up soon enough."

Sam folds his arms over his chest and looks away, still hurt and angry.

Dad's quiet for a minute, just watching Sam. When he speaks again, he doesn't sound mad anymore, just serious. "Listen, _never _leave your brother, okay? You stay with your brother, and I know that you're safe."

Sam scowls. He's still being treated like a little kid.

Dad must know what Sam's thinking, because he says, "It's not because I think you're a baby, Sam, or that you need someone to talk care of you. You're brothers. You look out for each other. You keep each other safe. That's what brothers do. Okay?"

Sam thinks about this for a few seconds. He thinks about how Dean jumped onto the monster's back so that it wouldn't hurt him. Then he thinks about how he used his pocketknife to attack the monster so it wouldn't hurt Dean or Dad. When they were together, they protected each other. "Okay," Sam agrees softly. "Like a team."

"Yeah," Dad says. "Like a team." He turns back around and starts the car, then meets Sam's eyes in the rearview mirror.

"You hungry?" he asks Sam.

Sam realizes that he is absolutely starving. "Yes sir."

"Alright, we'll get out of town, then we'll stop for some dinner."

They drive past Emily's house, then past the McDonald's, and then they get on the freeway. After a few silent miles, Dad clicks on the radio. Dean makes a scoffing noise at the pop song that plays, and starts to fidget with the dial. Suddenly, everything feels so wonderfully familiar and safe that Sam starts to cry.

"You okay?" Dean asks. Sam looks up to see Dean turned around in his seat, watching him. Dean usually mocks tears, but tonight he only looks worried.

Sam wants to say yes, that he is crying because he knows he is okay, because he knows that they're all okay. But it is the messy kind of crying, and all he can do is nod.

"You're okay now, Sammy," Dean says. "As long as you're with us, you're safe."

Sam swipes at his tears with his sleeve and nods again. He knows, he knows.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Sorry about the inconsistent updates. Pretty please let me know what you think!**


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